One Last Chance
by LilMissFerret
Summary: Everything was going so great. His life was finally going places, and then an unexpected tragedy leaves the world spinning out of control. Set post season 4. :)
1. Pilot

**A.N. Okay, so let's be honest. Season 5 is still pretty amazing, but I just can't let it be **_**that **_**way. They wrote him off the best way they could, and it was absolutely beautiful. Cory Monteith will be missed sorely, by all of us gleeks, but he did take the very best character this show had to offer with him. So here is my tribute to Finn, several months late. :')**

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**Pilot**

They say life flashes before your eyes, but that's not true. One moment he was driving down the street and the next the world was spinning so wildly that it was nothing but a blur of color. And then… Nothing. Lots of nothing.

His heart would be racing, if he could feel it, but he couldn't feel anything. It was dark and empty, completely devoid of any sensations at all. Time was moving, jumping from hyper drive to slow motion and back again.

He tried to focus. To find something concrete to hold on to, but it was hard. Everything was slipping away. Even thinking was getting harder by the second. And then, like a whisper, a faint promise circled through his torn memories.

Endgame.

He owed it to Rachel. She was his shining star, his whole world. He had to find her. Get to her. And with that everything slowed down. It was still a battle for every new thought, but he wasn't losing anything for the moment.

**o.O.o**

"My baby, Burt. My baby!" Carole cried, clutching his hand so tight he thought his fingers might snap.

They had gotten the call just over an hour ago. At first he hadn't known what to think, Carole had been the one to answer the phone, and he had been caught up in the latest game. He heard the phone ring, and listened as she had answered the call and then went silent.

After a few moments he climbed out of his favorite chair, and made his way towards the kitchen to see what the matter was. Carole stood by the counter, phone dangling from the wall. Her eyes were red, and far off, and she just kept shaking.

"Carole?" he asked softly as he reached for her hand. "What happened?"

She tried to speak, mumbling gibberish. The only word he caught was 'Finn', over and over again.

Burt pulled her to him them, folding her in his arms as she broke down into unintelligible sobs. Over the span of the next few minutes he got the rest out of her, although he had to put it all together himself. Finn had wrecked, not fifteen minutes from the house, on his way to glee practice.

"Carole.. We need to go. To the hospital," he told her.

His wife nodded against his chest, and then after a deep breath pulled back. "Let's go. He needs us there," he reminded her, wiping the tears from her eyes with the pad of his thumb.

He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, but he couldn't. He'd been there, long ago, holding out hope that the one person that meant the most to him would wake up, come home, and keep smiling at him every morning when he woke up. But things didn't always work out like that. He had lost his first wife, and his little boy had lost his mother, and it had nearly killed them both. There was no kidding around here.

Carole followed him out the door, just staring out the window as the tears trickled down her cheeks. She didn't even bother to wipe them away anymore.

The drive to the hospital wasn't long, but it was painfully quiet. And they reached the lobby only to be turned away the moment they walked in. Finn was still alive, for the moment, but he was also being life-flighted to the main hospital in Cleveland.

So here they were, alternating between sitting and pacing the cramped waiting area. A hundred other people must have been in the room, most of them in a state of distress, and the whole room seemed to jump with every ding of the elevator, or creaking of a door.

Burt had been the one in charge, he'd called everyone under the sun, held Carole's hand, and tried to be the rock, but he was losing it, ever so slowly.

**o.O.o**

Life in New York was just as loud and thriving as it ever was, and the three of them were about to drop dead. Between classes and working, it was a wonder they ever had a spare moment, let alone one together.

When the call came in it was like the whole world came to an end. Time stopped, and Rachel was so stunned she could barely form a complete sentence.

"No," she commanded, like she could change everything with one simple word.

"We have to go! Oh my god. There's so much to do. Oh my god."

"Okay," Santana interrupted, stopping Kurt's panicked ramble. "Breathe, Lady Man. Pack something for the next couple of days. And," she paused, studying Rachel's still form, "help her too. I'll call the airport."

Kurt snapped his jaw shut, his best offended look plastered on his face. After a moment though, he seemed to register what Santana had actually said. He wiped the last of his tears from his cheeks with the tips of his fingers, and then snatched up Rachel's hand.

Santana just couldn't believe it. This wasn't something that she could have predicted with her psychic Mexican third eye. Finn might have been a marshmallow, but, dammit, he was her marshmallow, and he wasn't allowed to die on her. She would make sure of it.


	2. Don't Stop Believin'

**A.N. I'm seriously afraid of getting carried away with this. Thanks everybody for the favs and follows and reviews. They mean a lot. I really think that that was the fastest I've ever gotten a response. Lol. So enjoy the double update. While this get finished? That's a good question. Especially since I basically have to rethink the entire ending I had planned.  
**

* * *

**Episode 1**

**Don't Stop Believing**

When the Glee Club met that day the tension was high. The students had been quiet since they had heard the awful news the day before. They were all anxious to know what was going on, especially the older members of the team.

Mr. Schuester entered the room a few minutes late. Their teacher placed his stack of papers on the top of the piano, letting the silence stretch before he addressed them. "As you all know Finn was in a pretty serious accident yesterday... and, well, it doesn't look all that great," he said sadly, unable to even look them in the eyes. Finn was his best friend, no matter the issues they had been having over the past few weeks.

Things had just started looking up, too. The kids had hoped that they would have both of their teachers for Nationals. They would need them, especially if they were going to win. Now they were just hoping that they wouldn't lose Finn for good.

"There's no easy way to say this... The doctors have put him in a medically induced coma. Finn's brain is swelling and they hope to stop that from happening anymore than it already has."

"Is he going to be okay?" Marley asked. "Does he have brain damage?"

"They won't know anything unless he wakes up," he returned quietly.

"Mr. Schue?" Artie interrupted. "Can we go visit him?"

Their teacher just shook his head. "Not right now. We have to let the family have their time with him. Give them some space. I know you're all upset. We all are."

"Don't tell us we're supposed to sing it out," Jake scoffed from the back of the room.

"No. No assignment this week," he told them. "If anyone wants to, though, you're more than welcome to put something together." Will glanced towards his office, a lost, far off gleam in his eyes. "If you need anything, come find me."

He left them then, softly shutting the door between them as he went.

"We have to do something."

"Do you think they told Rachel?"

"Of course they did. She lives with his brother doesn't she?"

"What about Nationals?"

"Who cares? What's the point if Finn's in the hospital?"

"What if he dies?"

"Shhh! Don't talk like that!"

"Guys," Sam tried to butt in, but no one paid him any attention. "GUYS! Why don't we put something together for Finn? For when he wakes up. That way he can't get mad because we haven't practiced."

"That's a great idea, Sam," Blaine agreed. "Mr. Schue might need something to cheer him up too."

Sam gave the other boy a grin, "Okay. So does anybody have any ideas?"

**o.O.o**

It had been so long. Between the plane being delayed because of the weather and the road work blocking the interstate, it had taken an unnatural amount of time. Rachel was getting impossible, too.

She was having a hard time, which was perfectly understandable. Finn was her soul mate, her first true love, her everything, even when she didn't want to admit it. He could get behind that, he had Blaine back home, after all. But Rachel's problem was she didn't seem to get that she wasn't the only one that was upset.

Kurt was the one that got the call once his father and Carole had gotten to the hospital and knew what was happening. His dad had tried to be the strong, manly-man, but he could hear the pain in voice. Carole was inconsolable. And that was before they had drugged poor Finn to the point of coma.

Personally, he was in a state of shock. That was until his father lead the three of them into the room. The ICU was loud, and impossibly bright for such a dark, painful place. All around the area there were dozens of other patients, each in different stages of near-death.

One woman just stared straight ahead into the hall, a tube attached to her throat, while she garbled noise at all of those that passed. In another room, a young boy, no older than thirteen, was strapped down on a bed while his friends and family sobbed and screamed around him. And then there was Finn.

He was hard to recognize, behind the mottled color of his skin and the swelling. Most of his large frame was covered by a thin hospital issued blanket, leaving only his face and neck exposed.

Stitches decorated the line of his left brow, both of his eyes had been blacked out, and his lips were swollen and covered in lingering bits of dried blood. The scary part, however, was the wires and tubes dangling from every one of his limbs. Three bags of strange liquid were hanging on the metal armature next to his bed, and he was decked out with a heart monitor and ventilator. The automatic blood pressure machine buzzed to life as he stared, wondering just how it had all come to this.

Finn was such a strong person, an he had been an amazing inspiration. He was family. Something about seeing his like that, it made it all real, and Kurt finally let the first tears out. The ones he had been afraid of.

Santana was right behind him, and she marched straight to Finn's side, and bent over him so that she could whisper in his ear. He couldn't hear what she said, but from the look on her face it hadn't been friendly. In fact, Kurt had the suspicion that she might have been threatening Finn with something horrible in order to trick him into getting better.

She didn't stay for very long after that, but she wasn't one for mushy family moments and tears. The nicest thing she did was pause by Carole's side and said, in the most serious tone she could muster, "He's going to get better. He has to, or I'll make sure he regrets it." And then she was gone.

Kurt moved out of the way when Rachel replaced Santana, going to sit by his step-mother's side and taking her hand in his. She didn't object, just held on so tight his fingers were already starting to get numb.

Rachel moved silently into the cramped room. She had stopped crying for the moment, although she looked close to breaking down again any second now. She didn't bother to say anything to anyone, she just stood over Finn for a minute, just watching him. After a few moments of that, Rachel, very gingerly, placed the very faintest of kisses on Finn's forehead. She then took the seat by his side, and intertwined her fingers with his.

Kurt had never once, in all of the years he had known her, seen her so quiet. It was unnatural, down right wrong. The entire trip home she had been nothing but a nonstop whirlwind of words. Some of which hadn't made any sense, and others that were so rambled together that they couldn't be deciphered.

But now, here, her light seemed to have gone out. And that, more than even Finn's bleak predicament, was heartbreaking.

**o.O.o**

This place was strange. This weird empty place he was floating through. It must have been some kind of limbo, he had decided. At first he thought it might have been a dream, but it just kept going and going. And it didn't really feel like a dream. It was too real, or something.

Everything felt strange, too. He wasn't hot or cold really, in fact it was like there was no temperature at all. He thought he must have been floating or flying, because their was nothing underneath him, just more emptiness.

Even when he tried to touch himself, like scratching his head or readjusting himself, he couldn't feel it. It was unnerving at first, but Finn had quickly grown used to it. He kind of liked it here actually, it was quiet.

He had plenty of time to think, which wasn't a good thing, but at least he could work through some of the stuff that filled up his head on a day to day basis. And he had worked out an entire decade worth of songs for Nationals.

Finn hadn't gotten lonely yet either, although he was starting to wonder if that would be a problem later on. But he could imagine just about anything here. When he had been thinking up songs it was almost like he entire place had come to life. Where ever he was, it had some decent surround sound.

He wasn't really worried about it, or anything really. He realized that being stuck in limbo probably didn't mean good things for him in the long term, but that seemed fuzzy and any time he did try to think about it his mind just sort of jumped to a different topic.

Rachel was a favorite. He kept trying to remember the dream he had had before this had all happened. It was something about Rachel, he was sure, and this little girl all done up in light blue. Kurt must have gotten a hold of her, he had thought. No way would he or Rachel have gotten her something like that.

The girl had just kept singing, and dancing around the room, with this big smile full of missing teeth. Finn never had too many dreams like that. He was, well, he was a dude, and guys just don't do that kind of thing all of the time. But it was fun, and happy, and it made him smile anyway.

That was what he wanted, after all. He knew why he had sent Rachel away, to New York. It was her biggest dream, and there was no way in hell he was going to let her wallow in a nowheresville like Lima. Not she much potential. But a small part of him still regretted it too, not that he could, or would, change anything.

These few years didn't matter so much, it was the next few, and the decades that would follow, when he wanted her by his side. She could have her dream, all of them, as long as she came back to make his a reality.

He lingered on that for a few more minutes, and then wondered if he'd ever get to see her again, ever get to hear her beautiful voice. All of the happiness fled then, and his insides seemed to turn to ice.

"Don't," he coached himself. "Don't stop believing."


	3. Say Something

**A.N. Please don't mock the bad medical knowledge. Lol. Its a mingling of Grey's Anatomy episodes, a twenty minute google search, and what I can remember from my medical terminology class four years ago. Enjoy!  
**

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**Episode 2**

**Say Something**

She had never seen him like this, broken and still. Finn was strapped down on his bed, held up at an angle, and surrounded by thick plastic covered pads. The monitors around him beeped and flashed, but he looked like death had already taken him. He wasn't even able to breathe on his own.

Rachel was thankful that she had finally got some alone time with Finn. Carole was his mother, but she was making this even harder with her constant stream of breakdowns. And she kept wanting to have these heart to hearts that Rachel simply wasn't up for. She wouldn't be alone for long, Kurt had only convinced the older woman to leave because they weren't allowed to eat on the ICU floor.

The time had given her plenty of time to think. The accident had been horrible; they were lucky he was still here at all. The doctors had said that the coma would help him heal, but that was two weeks ago, and he still wasn't doing any better. The swelling in his brain had gone down enough that the doctors thought it would be better to take Finn off of the medication. He had been off of the drugs for six days, and he hadn't so much as blinked.

Rachel massaged his hand with her own, trying to bring back some of the warmth he was missing. _"Say something I'm giving up on you.." _she sang to him softly, tears flooding her chocolate eyes once again.

She kept her hand tight around his limp fingers, desperate to hold on just a little longer. She thought it was her imagination at first, the tiny flutter against her palm. Rachel shook away the last dregs of hope. It had been so long, too long, the doctors said. He wasn't going to wake up. He wasn't going to come back to her.

"I'm so sorry, Finn. I - I wish we'd gotten another chance at us." Rachel sniffed, wiping away get another tear. "I love you. More than anything."

She thought back to a few weeks ago, when she had the pregnancy scare. She had been so worried about her career, about her stardom, and she was so glad when it had turned out to be nothing. Now she almost regretted it. Had she known that she might be losing him, she would have traded everything to have a tiny piece of him, of them, to hold onto for the rest of her life. And with that she made to leave, releasing his hand at the last possible moment. With a frantic flurry of beeps, his heart monitor jumped as his heart rate increased dramatically.

"Finn?" she asked, rushing back to his side. She ran her hand over this forehead, pushing back the fringes of his hair. "Shh.."

She was still petting him when she saw it. The first real movement. And there was no fooling herself now. "Finn? Sweetie, can you do that again?"

She waited, watching his hand intensely. "Please, please, please," she repeated over and over to herself. It was the barest of flinches, but after a few seconds he responded. Finn lifted his index finger on his left hand, holding it just above the sheets. It was shaky, but unmistakable.

And then the tears started back up again.

**o.O.o**

Finn had been drifting for days, or it felt like days anyway, with nothing but nothing to keep him company. The emptiness had gotten lonely fast. Now there was just nothing.

He wasn't sure when it happened, mostly because he kept dreaming up strange things about his friends and family, but one of those dreams seemed to have come to life.

He couldn't see her, but he could hear Rachel's voice, smell her perfume, hell he could even feel her hand in his. That didn't make sense to his crazed brain, and so he tried desperately to find her, spinning around and around in the darkness. It was so different from anything else he had experienced in the last few days that he couldn't see it being anything but real.

She was crying, crying like he had never before; she was heart broken clinging onto him for dear life. He tried to listen to her, tried to understand the words. He wanted to, needed to, it was like his very life depended on her, and what she had to say.

She loved him, he got that much. He loved her too, she knew that. There was nothing in the world he wouldn't do for her, no matter the cost.

He wanted to reassure her. To tell her everything would be okay, but he couldn't make the words come out. His throat felt constricted, and it was hard to breathe. Finn was starting to panic, like she was going to disappear on him. And then the feeling was gone. He couldn't feel her anymore. He couldn't feel anything.

He reached for her again, blindly groping through the darkness. He couldn't lose her, not when he had just gotten her back.

"Finn?" he heard her ask. Rachel sounded so far away. So faint. He still couldn't speak, but he continued to search. "Sweetie, can you do that again?"

She was back now, closer. Her dainty fingers running through his hair. But he didn't understand what she meant. What was he supposed to do? He hadn't done anything at all. Still, Finn brought his hand up to his face. She had to be right there, but there was nothing but empty air.

Rachel gave him a sad little laugh, and he knew she had started crying again. "We're going to get through this," she told him before placing a kiss on his forehead. "Now you just have to wake up."

_Wake up? _he wondered. _Was he asleep? _It didn't really make any sense, and the more he tried to make it all fit together the harder it got to focus. After that it all just kind of slipped away. Finn tried to fight it, but couldn't. The darkness suddenly became suffocating. The only thing left was a sharp pressure in his throat, and the deep need to breathe. He had to _breathe_.

**o.O.o**

Rachel was just starting to hope again. Maybe he could beat this, and they could have their happily ever after. Maybe they'd grow old and watch their little ones dance and sing. She wanted that adorable little boy in her head, the one with Finn's heart and her determination, or a sweet innocent little girl with an attitude to match all of the talent she was bound to have.

All of those fairy tale dreams she'd put away for now, shelved so that her career, her glory, could take center stage. She would have regretted it until the day she joined him in the ground, but now she didn't need to. She could have all of that, _they _could have all of that.

And then he started convulsing.

"Help! Oh my god, someone help!" Rachel screamed, fumbling for the remote at his side. She pressed the emergency call button, which caused a siren to blare to life.

The nurses came running, shoving her out of the way. "Stand outside," one of the sterner nurses ordered her.

"No. I can't leave him!" she refused, standing her ground.

"Fine," the woman returned, grabbing Rachel by the arm and forcing her out of the door. "Stay out of the way."

"Finn!" she shouted over the woman's shoulder. "Stay with me, Finn!"

The other nurses ignored her, yanking the curtain over the doorway. She was beginning to hyperventilate, and had no idea what she should be doing. She couldn't lose him, she couldn't. She didn't know how to live without him, she'd forgotten how to breathe without him.

Rachel simply could not move. Her feet were glued to the glossy tile beneath them, not even when they pulled the curtain back just enough for the nurses to leave. They filed out, stripping off their latex gloves as they went. The siren had been shut off at some point, leaving the hall deafeningly quiet.

And then like a final nail in the coffin, they wheeled out the ventilator.

"Is he…? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I can't…"

"Oh, sugar, don't cry," the nurse said. "He's still with you." The older lady beamed at her, "I know its scary, but he wasn't dying, sugar, he was trying to _breathe._"

"He's breathing?" she repeated, trying to put her addled mind back together. "He's breathing on his own?"

Of course he was. Finn was stronger than anyone else she'd ever met, and he wasn't done with life just yet.

"Go be with him. He needs you now. And I'll make sure to tell his parents."

Rachel didn't need to be told twice, and so, without any hesitation she stepped through the door. The room was much quieter without the steady roar of the ventilator. Only the heart monitor continued its unstoppable rhythm. Finn looked much more comfortable now, without the giant plastic tube in his mouth. He was just sleeping, and even with the bruises and cuts, he looked peaceful.

Rachel smiled, for the both of them, and moved to rub one of his monstrous feet. "Don't do that again, okay? I - I need you too much."


End file.
